I missed

[medicmade]

I missed the biggest vein i have ever seen. I was putting in a 18g in this cannon right in the AC and i could not get flash for crap. I got one in his for arm but is it realy that easy to miss something so simple? Im usally good at hard sticks.

[wvditchdoc]

Yeah it sure as hell happens. Sometimes it is easier to get IV's in the little old 90 y/o Diabetic than to hit one of those pipelines. It happens, don't stress. I always joke about not being able to get an IV in a person that is still. Give me the back of a rig going 90 down some back woods crooked as hell road and I will get it every damn time. You can't be 100% so try and figure out what you did wrong (it may have been nothing) and make yourself better for the next time you hear "They never get me without trying 5-10 times" and you get it first shot.:ninja:

HE SHOOTS HE SCORES!:reddot::camper:

:icon_thumright:

[drthrockmorton]

Dittos above!!

Hard to say what you did wrong. Everyone has those moments when you miss the "easiest" stick, diagnosis or intubation. Don't sweat it. It'll surely happen again someday.

Cheers

[bubbamedic]

I've been pulled into patient's room as I pass them by nurses who are having trouble. I have gotten sticks on combative diabetic drug users with calicified veins while being wedged between a wall and a firefighter struggling to hold them still, in the dark -- backwards! (Sounds like I walk uphill both ways, barefoot in the snow, for over three miles to go to school, huh?) But I have blown or missed those ropes as well.

I have actually asked the er staff to shake the bed a bit, so I knew I would get thte stick in the ER! Funny thing is...they actually did it for me!

Part of the fun in the job. Keeps us on our toes and not to get too complacent.

Now have I told you about ....

[medicgoddess]

We've all had our days/weeks when we've been unable to hit the "easiest" sticks. Don't psych yourself out though. It always amazes me when I "get" the spider vein on the 90 yo diabetic and can't hit the rope on the 25 yo who doesn't feel well.

[PSYCtest040]

Right now I'm in intermediate class and until yesterday I missed my last five sticks. Three I didn't feel so bad about because my preceptor also missed on his try, and two were gorgeous veins just begging to be hit and I (like a student) missed **sigh**. I did redeem my self befor the shift ended by getting first try sticks on violent/combative pts in back of a moving rig.

Still waiting on my first tube though.

[RichEMT]

if it makes u feel better. they wont even let me start an iv. somethin to do with not being trained lol im a basic

[smiley]

RICHEMT............

I must say there is an art to IV therapy. It just isn’t plugging a line in someone and filling them with “Fluids”. Yes training is the key to any provider being wonderful, compitent and safe clinicians. To boot IV Fluid is a prescribed medication.

Any ALS Provider will tell you that becoming a paramedic is a difficult feat. Part of the training is IV fluid therapy, fluid resuscitation and identification of the types and uses of parenteral fluid, physiologic processes that go inline with vascular fluid replacement and what and why your patient is in need of a line v/s a lock or what type of fluid will you use and are you going to add anything to it and how to piggyback medications into this line if need be and is the fluid your administering going to deactivate any medicine I may potentially administer to this patient in the foreseeable future………….

And it goes with a sense of pride and accomplishment to be able to perform venipuncture and administer fluid AFTER hours upon hours upon hours of training.

IV’s as mundane as they seem are a dangerous procedures if done by just anyone wanting to help but not understanding the inherit risks associated.

Colloids, Crystalloids, Hypotonic, Hypertonic, etc…………. there is a lot to it.


On a lighter note,,,,,,, I missed a HOSE on this clowns arm the other day. Then he bled all over the place. Even my Salty ass EMS hating captain made fun of me. It happens to the best of us…… Just like Erectile Dysfunctions…. Wait did I say that out loud……

SMILEY

[wvditchdoc]

Just like Erectile Dysfunctions…. Wait did I say that out loud……
:laughing4:


It is the Tourett's again, have you been taking your meds?

[RichmondMedik]

Good Reply SMILEY !!!!

My system is an ALS / BLS system and I am always hearing the BLS providers say " I can start an IV and Intubate. I am just as good as having a second medic on the truck " when I hear that statement I cringe. I then go on to explain that we can teach a monkey to intubate so should we also have monkeys on the truck ?? -- i then explain just because you know how to do a skill does not mean you understand the reason for that skill to be performed. there is a lot more to being a competent provider than just the skills

there are some days we probably can all hit whatever we look at - even blindfolded and others couldn't hit a barn with a rock from 2 feet away

[traumajunkyems/fire]

Still waiting on my first tube though.

Jesus, come ride with me I seem to be the shit magnet for that. 2 codes in my last four or five shifts, if not that, it's a mercyflight call.

[PSYCtest040]

Jesus, come ride with me I seem to be the shit magnet for that. 2 codes in my last four or five shifts, if not that, it's a mercyflight call.

Sign me up.

[traumajunkyems/fire]

Sign me up.

Jump in I don't give a shit, just don't point a chunk blowing pts head towards me trying to get the tube.

[PSYCtest040]

Jump in I don't give a shit, just don't point a chunk blowing pts head towards me trying to get the tube.

I don't do well with puke.

[traumajunkyems/fire]

I don't do well with puke.

I don't like wearing it.

[Waveband]

Speaking of IVs...
I got my first try at IVs in the ER on Wednesday. I made 4 attempts, but I got two of them.
I, too, missed a lady's hand with beautiful, textbook veins. I had a couple nurses really help me out with advice and patience*. I went home feeling like maybe I can do this medic thing! Second semester is moving really fast. I am anxiously awaiting the ride-outs.

Waveband

[prncssmdc]

My system is an ALS / BLS system and I am always hearing the BLS providers say " I can start an IV and Intubate. I am just as good as having a second medic on the truck " when I hear that statement I cringe. I then go on to explain that we can teach a monkey to intubate so should we also have monkeys on the truck ?? -- i then explain just because you know how to do a skill does not mean you understand the reason for that skill to be performed. there is a lot more to being a competent provider than just the skills



This statement is a work of art. Beautiful. It gave me the warm fuzzies.

[smiley]

I had a couple nurses really help me out
Waveband


It’s kind of different in the back of the rig, going 65mph over train tracks, with shitty light and dirt, blood and god knows what in the area you’re sticking. The majority of ED nurses, (not a shot at nurses however) really really really just don’t get it. Then they always are harping how "WE" can’t get IV's. Just like the Anesthesiologists and majority of ED doc's saying that intubations should not be performed in the field and a BLS airway is just as good for what we are trained on and doing.

HALDOL IM AUTO INJECTION..................................... CAlm, calm.......

Ok I’m calm now, , I’m calm calmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmla;msdkkkkkkkkkgnkdjdfwWAUI SDB
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssfas

[codeblue603]

:glasses1:

IV's i scare the hell out of a lot of my pt's i have a tremor. lol the pt's ask me if i am ok. ha ha, that is when my crew starts talking to the pt & the next thing they know i am done. Or one the guys on the fire crew see s the pt's eyes get big and they start telling them about my tremor. I have been doing it for so long that i forget to tell the pt's 1st. We all have good days & bad one with iv's.

[TheGooseMedic]

It’s kind of different in the back of the rig, going 65mph over train tracks, with shitty light and dirt, blood and god knows what in the area you’re sticking. The majority of ED nurses, (not a shot at nurses however) really really really just don’t get it. Then they always are harping how "WE" can’t get IV's. Just like the Anesthesiologists and majority of ED doc's saying that intubations should not be performed in the field and a BLS airway is just as good for what we are trained on and doing.

HALDOL IM AUTO INJECTION..................................... CAlm, calm.......

Ok I’m calm now, , I’m calm calmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmla;msdkkkkkkkkkgnkdjdfwWAUI SDB
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssfas


That is so true about nurses, about a year ago, our physcian advisor had all the ER nurses ride on the ambulance for a 12 hour shift. I had a nurse that thought he was hot shit. He said, you want me to get that IV for you? I said go right ahead, looked up to my partner and said we can get going NOW!!!! Needless to say the nurse was 0/2 on his easy IV and has never gave me any shit for not having an IV again!

[PSYCtest040]

That is so true about nurses, about a year ago, our physcian advisor had all the ER nurses ride on the ambulance for a 12 hour shift. I had a nurse that thought he was hot shit. He said, you want me to get that IV for you? I said go right ahead, looked up to my partner and said we can get going NOW!!!! Needless to say the nurse was 0/2 on his easy IV and has never gave me any shit for not having an IV again!

Nicely done, very nicly done. I'll have to remember that.